Prop 16 Would Have Blocked Some of The Nation's Leading Green Power and Climate Protection Efforts

Sonoma County is investigating Climate Protection measures. Marin and San Francisco want to go green. South San Joaquin wants energy independence. From 51% renewable by 2017 to 100% green by 2020, California towns, cities and counties are being aggressively blocked by PG&E with hundreds of millions of dollars in ratepayer bailout windfall-funded lobbying and slick flag-waving public relations campaigns. Today PG&E paints itself green based on its nuclear plants and a bunch of old hydropower dams. To greenwash itself, PG&E has spent incredible sums in television, radio, billboard and direct mail to persuade the public that it is leading the very green power movement that it is working so hard to block. In the meantime, PG&E has aggressively invested in more gas-fired power plant infrastructure, and is seeking a five billion dollar ($5 B) rate increase from state regulators over the next three years (the largest increase in PG&E history) to pay for a new generation of fossil power plants powered on imported Liquefied Natural Gas from a PG&E-sponsored importation terminal on the Oregon border.

In short, PG&E is making bad fossil investments that it wants its customers captive to pay for in coming decades. Moreover, PG&E is the nation's nuclear cheerleader, promoting a rebranded nuclear power as "carbon-free" - and has petitioned federal regulators to allow its old nukes to keep running. While failing to meet California's mandated green power minimums since they day they were approved by the legislature in 2002, PG&E has spent nearly as much money blocking communities from implementing local green energy programs that offer consumers an alternative to PG&E supply. From South San Joaquin to San Francisco, Marin to San Luis Obispo, PG&E is seeking to raise rates to pay for its fossil nuclear future. That's why Sierra Club California, League of Women Voters and many other environmental groups were strongly opposed to Prop 16.